“Communities of Suchitoto”

Hola CRISPAZ family and friends!

What’s new with me? Well... I recently started becoming more active in the communities of Suchitoto, especially San Rafael. Two weeks ago, I gave my first workshop on the importance of organization at the communal level. The following week, I gave a workshop on “future aspirations,” and next week will give another workshop on “self-esteem and self care.” During the workshop about future aspirations, the group of 20 women talked about their desires to find a fair paying jobs, join together as a community of trust, a community that would stand behind one another, and a community that fights the violence they receive. At the beginning, it was difficult to get them to participate and speak up, but by the end of the workshop, they had a wonderful discussion on how their aspirations can be put into action to transform San Rafael into the community they desire. They also talked about the need to share this information with the many who were not in attendance to form a San Rafael rooted in trust, respect, and kindness. I will accompany this community of women, giving workshops every other week, until I finish volunteering with CRISPAZ and APDM.

San Rafael is not the only community I will be accompanying throughout my time in Suchitoto, simply the first. I have plans to start teaching reading and writing to another women’s group in a small rural community called, La Pita. I visited La Pita a couple times learning how to lead my own workshops, but was surprised to find that only 3 out of 15 could read and write. I offered to teach them and they gladly accepted! I am excited to visit La Pita every week until they can read and write sufficiently, and then will continue giving workshops, like those in San Rafael, throughout the year.

The same day that I organized visits to La Pita, a woman who works closely with APDM and the Concertacion de Mujeres asked me what I was doing with APDM. I began to tell her about everything I have just written above, when she replied, “Why don’t you come to my town and give these workshops to teenage girls? A lot of young women dropped out of school because they became pregnant and don’t receive vital information that they need to lead a healthy lifestyle. They don’t know that they deserve better because they stay in the house and don’t receive the formal education that tells them machismo is not okay. Instead they buy into social norms and don’t have the chance to learn right from wrong.” I agreed to lead workshops for the young women in her community of La Mora and am excited to start there in the coming weeks.

And, when I’m not in the communities, I am doing lesson plans, getting materials ready, joining meetings, and participating in all day conferences to learn how to properly attend to a woman in violence that needs my help. These conferences are once a week for two months and are more geared toward women leaders who will then go back to their communities to listen and help women in need. Although I am not the leader of my community, the information we learn serves me just as well because I will be leading workshops of women where we may talk about delicate subjects that evoke emotions within them. With the tools I’m provided with at the conferences, I can aid women in my small groups whenever they need it.

Thanks for reading and supporting CRISPAZ!

Con amor,

Emily (CRISPAZ Compañera LTV)